Hanna Blumenfeld

Hanna Blumenfeld, Hermann's niece, daughter of his twin sister was born on the 19th of February 1924 in Bad Mergentheim. Hanna was murdered, at the age of 17, together with her father, Rudolf Blumenfeld and mother, Rosa (Fechenbach) Blumenfeld at the Lithuanian death camp Fort IX near Kaunas (Kowno) on 25th November 1941.

New infromation on Hermann Fechenbach’s twin sister Rosel Fechenbach (Blumenfeld) and Family

I have uncover new information on Hermann Fechenbach’s twin sister Rosel Fechenbach and Family.

Rosel was married to Rudolf Blumenfeld (born 17th November 1880 in Creglingen / Mergentheim / Württemberg), Rudolf was imprisoned from 10th November 1938 to 19th December 1938 in Dachau concentration camp, while he and his family waiting in vain for permission to enter the United States.

Their daughter Hanna (born on 19th February 1924 in Bad Mergentheim) was imprisoned on 6th August 1941 at the small town of Unterschleißheim Bavaria, Germany, located about 17 km north of the city limits of Munich, at a forced labor camp (Flachsröste Lohhof).

On the 20th November 1941, Rudolf, Rosel and their daughter Hanna where deported from München (Munich) to Fort IX near Kaunas (Kowno), west of Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania. Where on 25th November 1941 the entire family was murdered by Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A (a mobile killing squad made up of SS and Gestapo, together with German police forces and Lithuanian auxiliaries).

See Notes for more information

Notes: Einsatzgruppen (German: special-ops units) were paramilitary groups originally formed in 1938 under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich – Chief of the SD, and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police; SiPo). They were operated by the Schutzstaffel (SS). The first Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in the course of the 1939 invasion of Poland. Then following a Hitler-Himmler directive, the Einsatzgruppen were re-formed in anticipation of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Einsatzgruppen were once again under the control of Reinhard Heydrich as Chief of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA); and after his assassination, under the control of his successor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner.

The Einsatzkommando 3 of Einsatzgruppe A, was at that time commanded by Karl Jäger with a running total of their killings of 136,421 Jews (46,403 men 55,556 women, 34,464 children), 1,064 Communists, 653 mentally disabled, and 134 others, from 2 July-1 December 1941.

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945. Photo i took some years back on a visit to Auschwitz, the first is the ovens used to burn the bodies.

Night of Broken Glass

On the night of November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass”) in which violence against Jews broke out across Germany. German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis had planned and organised the pogroms. In just two days, more than 250 synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses, schools and homes were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed. After this many committed suicide while families tried desperately to leave.

May 1945 Goebbles Murders Entire Family

1st of May 1945, Joseph Goebbles the German Propaganda Minister, murders his wife and six children before taking his own life on the same day as Berlin surrenders to the Soviet legions and the Western Allies. "Propaganda Machine" by Hermann Fechenbach

Letter from Lydia K. Mansbach born Kahn, New Jersey, United States

Despite all the commercial difficulties for us Jews, which have increased noticeably in 1938, my father still went on business trips. When the 8 November 1938 from Würzburg to Lauda drove the train home, he heard well into his compartment, that the Nazis Jews attacked and beaten. But in the meantime, our house was visited in Bad Mergentheim by an SS man who asked my mother where my father is, and she said that he has made a business trip, he was satisfied and left. My mother lost no time and went straight to the next train to Lauda, where they just encountered when transferring my father and told him, what had happened in Mergentheim. So they got out in Edelfin conditions and Moses went to our friend Frank, who hid my father for the night in a haystack. Until the following night, after everything was quiet again, my mother went with a friend to walk to Edelfingen and took my father home.From my mother, both brothers Ludwig Jonas and wife Clare and Jacob Jonas and wife Martha were killed in concentration camps.My father's brother Benno born Kahn with his wife Therese and daughter Marianne, who had already fled to Holland, have also been killed by the Hitler gangs.It's so hard to remember, and I can not write about it.

Letter from Jacob Fröhlich, Israel, 22 November 1964

The financially and emotionally very difficult years in our immigration in August 1938, all my powers have exhausted prematurely and undermine my earlier indestructible translucent health. What Hugo is concerned, unfortunately this kind brother has been snatched from over 9 years ago in the middle of full activity after a heart attack suddenly us. Hugo's daughter from his first marriage to Maya, Gizella Miriam, who had inherited the great grace and loveliness of her mother, has achieved a certain notoriety as Israel's first beauty queen. Our beloved mother Bertha born Neuhaus is in Theresienstadt on 29 Shevat 5703 died. My sister Sophie was killed with her husband and four children in Lodz, my sister Flora Weil, were rescued by the two daughters with her husband and other children in Izbica perished, and Rosel Eldod is, with her husband and four been shot very young children in Riga. Miss Israel (Miriam Yaron [Jaross]) 1950 and her runner-ups